type
Is there hope for SMS health alerts?
Source: http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/December/Is-there-hope-for-SMS-health-alerts.aspx
85% of American adults have a cell phone, yet just 9% have signed up for health alerts via text. What is the potential for this type of intervention?
Adobe announces Creative Cloud updates to Muse and Photoshop, team subscriptions and more
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/11/adobe-creative-cloud-updates/
If you jumped on the Creative Cloud bandwagon, you’re about to cash in one of the major perks of taking said leap. Keeping its promise to roll out new features to the aforementioned members first, Adobe has announced updates to Muse and Photoshop alongside Creative Cloud training materials and team subscriptions. Let’s hit the highlights, shall we? Muse can not only help you publish websites without writing a line of code, but the software now offers assistance with smartphone and tablet-friendly versions of desktop sites, too. As far as new features for Photoshop CS6 are concerned, conditional actions (if this, then that), expanded Smart Object support, improved 3D effects and default type styles all settle in on the tool bench.
Looking to opt in to Adobe’s software service for your entire studio? No worries, the company has also outed Creative Cloud subscriptions for teams — complete with centralized admin tools and expert support — for $69 per month. That’s not all. Less than a month ago, the wraps were taken off of Creative Cloud Connection for sharing all of those essential project files. Now, said functionality is being trotted out in proper fashion. From what we gather, this will be a Dropbox-esque affair complete with drag-and-drop functionality that extends across Touch apps, too. Clients can also view design files here, like those from InDesign, even if they don’t have the requisi! te softw are installed on their machines. If that wasn’t enough, training materials are on the way in the form of exclusive content for card-carrying members. Get all that? Good. For the full rundown on all of the new features, consult the full PR that follows.
Filed under: Software
Source: Adobe (Photoshop Blog)
Remember When Facebook Wanted Your Phone Number For ‘Security’? It’s Using It To Sell Ads (FB)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-phone-number-security-being-sold-to-advertisers-2012-11
Since about September, Facebook has offered its advertisers a powerful new way to track its users as they surf the web: It’s called “phone number retargeting.” The move came after Facebook made a big effort to collect its users’ mobile phone numbers to prevent security breaches.
More recently, according to AdExchanger, Facebook has combined phone retargeting with a new “conversion pixel” — a type of tracking device, basically — within ads displayed on Facebook.
The combination of phone retargeting and conversion pixels allows advertisers to target you directly with ads and then measure exactly how you respond to them, whether by clicking, ignoring or buying something from the advertiser’s site.
Some advertisers have been doing this kind of thing on other web sites for years.
But most Facebook users don’t know it’s going on within Facebook. Instead, they believe the primary reason Facebook prompts them for a mobile phone number is to prevent account hacking, and to allow users to upload photos and make status updates from their phones.
In fact, earlier this year, Facebook began asking every user for a phone number for “security” purposes. Here’s what Facebook says about that:
But Facebook has since made those phone numbers available t! o advert isers as part of its new Custom Audience targeting product. “Audiences can be defined by either user email address, Facebook UIDs, or user phone numbers,” the product states.
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you are a member of your local gym. You probably gave the gym your phone number. But then you let your membership lapse, and now the gym wants to persuade you to come back. The gym can cross-reference its list of members’ phone numbers with users’ phone numbers on Facebook, and serve an ad on the page of any user with a matching number. Suddenly, you’re seeing ads that say, “Get 10% off if you rejoin your local gym!”
If you click on that ad, a conversion pixel will enable a “cookie” to track what you do so that the gym can see how successful its campaign was.
There’s a level of privacy built in to the system: Although your phone number will be targeted by ads, the number will be “hashed,” meaning that the system disguises it by replacing it with random code, making you anonymous. So the gym might target 100 phone numbers, but it won’t know which of those specific people actually responded to the ad (until they pay for a membership online, of course). All the gym will know is that a certain number responded to the ad, and that those users must have been on the original phone list.
Facebook launched the system to make its ads more effective for advertisers. The company believes they lower cost-per-acquisition (of users) for advertisers by 40 percent.
Disclosure: The author owns Facebook stock.
Related: Here Are The Sealed Court Papers On ‘Invalid Clicks’ Facebook Doesn’t Want You To See
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Users Start Giving Up on Streaming Video If It Takes Two Seconds to Load
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5959553/users-start-giving-up-on-streaming-video-if-it-takes-two-seconds-to-load
The faster the Internet gets, the less patience we all have with even the most insignificant of waits. A new study shows that a mere two second delay is enough for many people to give up and move on.
According to the recent study, based on 2.3 million views by 6.7 million unique users, users will start abandoning “short” videos after two seconds, and that 20 percent have moved on after five seconds. As far as the study is concerned, “short” equals “less than 30 minutes,” so you can probably imagine the migration happens even faster when you’re talking about a one or two minute clip. Viewers waiting for longer flicks (probably films) are willing to put up with a lot more BS.
This mass buffering exodus isn’t the same across the board however. A user’s patience also depends on the type of network they’re using. Fiber, Cable, and DSL users are all pretty similarly impatient, but mobile users are far more likely to wait around staring at the buffering animation like a chump, which isn’t all too surprising.
Where do you stand on the Internet video waiting game? Does two seconds sound like an instant, or more like an eternity? [GigaOM]
Display Media Buyers Favor Combined Contextual and Audience Targeting
94% of display media buying respondents to a Google and Forrester Consulting survey released in September 2012 currently combine contextual (i.e. targeting based on contextual category or contextual adjacency) and audience targeting. The primary reasons these respondents give for doing so are higher performance and greater accuracy than using one type of targeting alone. For […]
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5940946/20-google-search-shortcuts-to-hone-your-google+fu
Hidden behind Google’s search box are a slew of shortcuts leading to so-called “OneBox” results that provide awesome tools and display helpful information quickly and directly. You might think you know them all, but a few are more hidden than others.
Google’s OneBox is the result you get when Google magically knows the answer to a search you perform. Above the normal search results, Google gives your the definitive answer to your search—or a miniature, interactive tool to continue your search. These are different from search operators that help you narrow your search. With the OneBox results you can quickly find the weather, learn what a medication is, peek at a musicians discography, and even find release dates for movies. With this power you can find the information you’re looking for almost instantly, and you’ll look like the smartest person in the room for knowing the results before anyone else.
Get Instant Artist Discographies and Filmographies
Want to take a quick look at a musician’s discography? Or maybe just a list of all the films from a director or actor? Just type “[artist] [movies or albums]” into the search box and you get an instant list of what they’ve done. For musicians, you can also search “[artist] songs” to get a list of their popular songs.
Find Release Dates for Movies, Games, and More
Want to know when a game or movie is getting released? Type “[name of movie or game] release date” and you get the result. Movies automatically show the theatrical release date, but you can add “dvd” to get the DVD or Blu-Ray release. This search works for both upcoming and past releases.
Find Current Movie Showtimes
To quickly find movie showtimes in your area, type “[name of movie] [zip code]” into the search box and you get results for theaters close to you. If you don’t have a particular movie in mind, you can also just type “movie [zip code]” and get a list of everything playing in your area (if Google knows your location you can just type “movie”).
Instantly Find Simple Factual Information
For any search you might want to do that includes a definitive fact you can often search for the answer directly. These include dates like “[name of famous person] death,” certain stats like, “[mountain] elevation,” or even population with, “[city] population.” Essentially, if you’re searching for anything that has a number attached to it, you can often search for it directly.
Find the Score of Any Current Sports Game
Whether you’re a sports nut or you just want to know the best time to avoid going near a stadium, you can search nearly any sports team name to get the current score, and upcoming games. You only need to type in the name. For instance, “colorado rockies” gets you the recent scores, record, standings, win percentage, and upcoming games.
Get a Five Day Forecast of the Weather in Any City
Need to get a quick weather report before you head out for vacation? Search “weather [city name]” and you get a five day forecast for the city you search for.
Find the Current Time in Any City
Time zone conversions are a pain, but thankfully Google does them for you. Search “time [city name],” and you get current time in any city. If you’re looking for more results, type in “time [country name]” to get a full list of the timezones in any given country. While you’re at it, you can also get the time of the sunrise or sunset by typing “sunrise [city name],” or “sunset [city name].”
Find Upcoming Dates for Holidays and Events
When you need to quickly see what day of the week a holiday lands on, or when a big event starts (like the Presidential Election, the Super Bowl, Olympics, etc), search for “[year] [holiday name or event title].”
Calculate Almost Anything
Google’s calculator is surprisingly robust, and all you need to do is enter a calculation into the search box. “5+2” works just fine, but you can also use advanced phrases like “cos(pi) + 4.” If you want a graph, simply add “graph” before the equation. You can also search for “calculator” to bring up the calculator directly.
Convert Units of Measure
Unit conversions are handy when you’re cooking or building just about anything. The search in Google is easy. Type “[number] [unit] into [unit].” For instance, you can convert knots into miles per hour like this, “6 ounces into cups.” It works with any type of measurement, including digital storage (“5 mb into kb“). If you need to bring up the unit converter directly, you can do so by searching unit converter.
Convert Currency
Need to get an up-to-date currency conversion? Google’s one of your best choices, and it’s as simple as typing “[number] [currency] to [currency].” For instance, to get the conversion rate of US dollars into Yen, type, “1 usd to yen.”
Check Stock Prices
When you need to check the status of your stocks, search Google for the shortened stock name. For example, to find Facebook’s current price, search “FB.” If you’re not sure of the stock’s name, you can also use “[name of company] stock.”
Find Word Definitions and Synonyms
If you want to quickly find the definition, synonyms, or pronunciation of a word, all you do is type the word into the search box. For many words, Google will automatically pull up a quick definition, pronunciation, and a list of common synonyms. If it doesn’t, type “define” before the word.
Translate Words Instantly
Google Translate is great for translating large chunks of text. You can translate single words right from the search bar by typing “translate [word] into [language].” For instance, to translate “monster” from English to Spanish, type, “translate monster into spanish.” You can also translate simple sentences. For instance, “translate the monster ate my neighbor into spanish,” will result in “el monstruo se comió mi vecino.”
Search Basic Health Conditions
When you type in any health condition (like asthma, psoriasis, etc) into Google, you get a quick synopsis of the condition from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. If you don’t know the condition, you can also type in symptoms. For instance, “abdominal pain on right side” pulls up a list of possible conditions, including appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, and kidney stones.
Find Information on Medications
Search for any medication name (like Ambien, Lipitor, etc) and Google will pull up a quick description with links to side effects, directions, precautions, and more.
Hunt Down Information on Local Restaurants and Businesses
Looking for a new restaurant to check out in your area? Type in “[type of restaurant] [your zip code]” and you get a list of every place close to you, including review scores. You’ll also see a map on the right side so you can quickly flip through places not in the top results.
Get Instant Drive Times (and Directions) Between Addresses
Google Maps is great, but you don’t actually have to navigate to the main page to get directions. If you need to get a quick time estimate or overview of the drive, type “[current address] to [new address]” and Google will give you a quick look at the directions and drive time.
Track the Status of Any Flight
You don’t have to dig around on an airline’s web site to track the status of a flight. All you have to do is type “[airline] [flight number]” into Google and you get instant results from Flight Stats. If you want a quick estimate on flight cost, you can also search, “flights from [city] to [city]” for a search of available flights and prices.
Track Your Packages
Paste the tracking number of a shipment from USPS, UPS, FedEx, or On-Trac into your Google Search bar and Google automatically figures out which service has it and links you directly to the tracking page.
Google seems to add more and more of these quick OneBox search tricks to its search engine all the time, so count on more popping up in the future. Google also introduces new tricks for specific events, like the medal count during the Olympics, or the election hub during the elections. With these tricks you’ll be the fastest Googler around, and will certainly impress everyone with how quickly you can acquire all types of knowledge.
This Law Firm’s Probe Of Corruption In The Ad Business Identifies The Worst Offenders
Earlier this summer, the ANA commissioned law firm Reed Smith to do ask advertisers about “media rebates” and incentives in the ad agency business.
Media rebates are one of the most controversial areas of advertising. They are, as Reed Smith defines it:
The industry practice of media companies providing rebates/incentives to agencies for referring or influencing client spending towards that media company, and then the agencies not reimbursing those funds to the client …
Rebates are a type of bribe: Media companies pay them to agencies to keep client dollars—in the form of ad buys—coming, even when those dollars may be more efficiently spent elsewhere.
In the U.S., ad executives can go to jail for attempting this. This year, two executives at Aegis’ Posterscope unit pleaded guilty to an accounting scam that, in part, revolved around a sketchy volume discount scheme. In Germany, Aegis president Aleksander Ruzicka also went to prison for exactly this kind of thing a few years ago.
The survey identified how widespread the practice is, and who clients believe are the worst offenders in the business.
Media rebates are common outside the U.S., but 28% of clients said they had encountered them domestically, too.
Television, magazi! nes and outdoor are the industry’s with the worst reputation for the practice. In the U.S.,
The vast majority of marketers believe agencies should not be allowed to keep rebates.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Go here and type “facebook report.” What you get in return is a treasure trove of statistical insights about your Facebook profile, which is certain to send you into a narcissistic spiral you’ll never recover from.
Wanna know how many links, photos and updates you posted? Wolfram’s got all that. Curious what time of day you post the most? Wolfram will tell you that too? Or what crappy Facebook apps do you use the most? Right, it’s that virtual poker app your account is robo-spamming your friends about. And no analytic feature would be complete without a word cloud?
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Check it out for yourself here. But it’s a lot to take in, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. [Wolfram via The Verge]
Go here and type “facebook report.” What you get in return is a treasure trove of statistical insights about your Facebook profile, which is certain to send you into a narcissistic spiral you’ll never recover from.
Wanna know how many links, photos and updates you posted? Wolfram’s got all that. Curious what time of day you post the most? Wolfram will tell you that too? Or what crappy Facebook apps do you use the most? Right, it’s that virtual poker app your account is robo-spamming your friends about. And no analytic feature would be complete without a word cloud?
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Check it out for yourself here. But it’s a lot to take in, so don’t say we didn’t warn you. [Wolfram via The Verge]
Retail Counterfeiting Has Grown Into A $600 Billion Industry
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/retail-counterfeiting-has-grown-into-a-600-billion-industry-2012-8
Counterfeiting is one of the fastest-growing and most profitable industries in the world, experts say.
Product piracy applies to just about every type and grade of consumer goods: Shampoo, cosmetics, cigarettes, food, DVDs, perfume and pharmaceuticals are just some of the recent targets.
Accounting for 5 percent to 7 percent of the world trade market, phony products are a $600 billion industry.
And it’s an industry that can be hazardous to the health of your business as well as your own health.
Often made in developing companies with lax regulation and controls, knockoff products have been linked to organized crime or criminal activity, posing serious threats to consumers and companies alike while draining economies, say the experts at Acsis, a supply-chain logistics company. Counterfeiting has become the crime of the 21st century, Acsis says.
More than 1 million counterfeit electrical products have been recalled in recent years, including extension cords, power strips and batteries—products that not only can destroy electronic devices but pose a serious fire hazard, says the Electrical Safety Foundation International. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 64 percent of counterfeit electrical products are purchased from legitimate shops and retailers. However, many illegitimate power adapters continue to be sold online.
Counterfeiting becomes an even more insidious problem when it involves pharmaceuticals, including products that have been diluted, are falsely labeled or contain no active ingredients. In January 2010, the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers of counterfeit Alli capsules (for weight loss) sold over the Internet. Rather than orlistat, the active ingredient in Alli, the counterfeits contained a controlled substance called sibutramine, a potentially dangerous medication that officials say should not be used without a doctor’s recommendation.
While it would seem simple to warn business owners to stay away from seemingly shady deals and encourage them to buy from only reputable manufacturers and distributors, it’s not that black and white, Acsis’ chief technology officer said.
“In an economy where everyone is trying to save money, it is often hard to pass up what looks like a great deal,” said company CTO John DiPalo. “It’s important to remember that in nearly every instance, counterfeited goods are often made with inferior materials and not held to the high standards as the original. Despite this well-meaning intention of trying to spend less, in the end, it’s just not worth the risk.
“In an age when all parties are responsible for the product once it leaves their four walls, it’s no surprise that true product visibility throughout a supply chain is not only a necessity but a means of survival.”
Reach BusinessNewsDaily senior writer Ned Smith at nsmith@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.We’re also on Facebook & Google+.
More From BusinessNewsDaily:
- Caught on Video: Employees Behaving (Very) Badly
- Textile ‘DNA’ Thwarts Designer Counterfeits
- Lost in Translation: 7 Funny Product Names
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